Interior Design That Counteracts Stress

WHETHER IT JOINS you at the table in the form of Spanish designer Jaime Hayon’s animal-evoking dinnerware or offers you a friendly handshake like the five-fingered doorknobs from London product designer Charles Edwards, whimsicality is leavening interior design.

“There’s something in the zeitgeist right now that has people looking for an escape from the seriousness of work and politics,” said Baker Furniture chief creative officer Tristan Butterfield, who recently papered the company’s High Point, N.C., showroom with a…